With Disney desperate for any kind of ‘win’ among audiences, a new whisper claims that Marvel is currently looking to once again shackle veteran filmmaker Sam Raimi to their spiraling cinematic universe, this time as the director of their planned Avengers: Secret Wars.
This latest whisper was first raised to the public by noted scooper Daniel “DanielRPK” Ritchman, whose 80% accuracy regarding Marvel rumors (as calculated by the /r/MarvelStudiosSpoilers subreddit) includes such accurate scoops as the Green Lantern-esque changes to Kamala Khan’s live-action powers in Ms. Marvel, the casting for every member of the Illuminati seen in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, and the identity of Emilia Clarke’s G’iah in Secret Invasion.
Taking to his public Twitter account on September 6th, Ritchman straightforwardly informed his audience that his “sources confirmed that Sam Raimi is Marvel’s top choice to direct Secret Wars.”
Ritchman’s latest information came just a little over a week after a pair of his fellow scoopers alleged that Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania writer Jeff Loveness and Loki writer Michael Waldron had officially been removed from their respective writing duties on Avengers: The Kang Dynasty and Avengers: Secret Wars.
The first to raise word of their departure was scooper MyTimeToShineHello, whose themselves holds an 86% accuracy rating according to /r/MarvelStudiosSpoilers’ aforementioned calculations.
On August 26th, the scooper asserted via their personal Twitter account that “No writers will be hired for Kang Dynasty and Secret Wars until the strikes are over”.
Pressed by user @SkylerShuler if they were “saying Loveness and Waldron are off” the two crossover films, MyTimeToShineHello positively confirmed, “Yes.”
Likewise, asked by one of his own followers wheteher this staffing shake-up was true, scooper KC Walsh asserted, “Yea from what I’ve heard.
Notably, in regards to Loveness specifically, MyTimeToShineHello and KC Walsh are not the first Hollywood information sources to have made mention of his departure.
Speaking with film critic John Rocha for the May 18th episode of their The Hot Mic podcast, industry reporter Jeff Sneider informed his audience, “This is unconfirmed, [but] my source is saying that Jeff Loveness is off of The Kang Dyanasty and that he fell off before the [WGA Writers] strike.”
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Taken aback by this apparent development, Rocha then pressed Sneider, “So what does that mean? They’re gonna start all over again with how they’re approaching this? Find a new writer?”
“Yes, that’s exactly what it means,” his co-host confirmed in reply. “It sounds like Jeff Loveness – deserved or not – got a lot of criticism for his scripts and yes, it sounds like they’re going in another direction, from what my source says.
Unfortunately for both fans and Raimi himself, history has shown that through filmmaker’s attachment to a Marvel film does not necessarily guarantee a quality production.
As seen with Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, even the most estemeed directors will have their stylistic choices and flairs minimized – if not outright thrown out – thanks to Disney’s insistence that each MCU entry be produced according to the same ‘theme park ride’ formula.
The result? The film only features a small handful of moments where Raimi’s personal style shines through, with the rest of the WandaVision-sequel presenting nothing more than another of the studio’s CGI cameo fests.
Barring any setbacks caused by the ongoing WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes, Avengers: Secret Wars is currently set to hit theaters on May 7th, 2027.